Unmasking The Push For Explicit Content In Your Kids’ Schools

In case you haven’t heard, the American Library Association (ALA) — the world’s largest library membership association — is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year. The New York Times is certainly celebrating the occasion, glorifying the ALA and ALA-backed librarians as heroes in the fight against villainous “book banners.”

The Times, Publishers Weekly, and other legacy media outlets are quick to accept the premise of book bans, parroting ALA talking points that suggest parents are recklessly challenging thousands of books they deem mildly controversial. To quote one elementary school librarian, “I find it frustrating that the pendulum seems to be swinging back toward book banning and book challenges.” Another librarian claims parents are “wildly misrepresenting” written texts for political reasons. According to the latest “data” from the ALA ally PEN America, U.S. “book bans” in public schools reached a record annual high of 12,000 this past school year.

First, let’s set the record straight: If a parent challenges a book’s status in an elementary school for seven-year-olds, that is not a book ban. A challenged book will still be sold on Amazon or in your local bookstore. There are no — zero — banned books in America. A quick search for Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” proves me right.

Second, parents aren’t just challenging random books because they feel like it; they are speaking out against highly sexualized content that is not suitable for children. One example is “Gender Queer,” written by Maia Kobabe (pronouns e/em/eir). The book introduces topics like breast and vagina removal, gay and lesbian pornography, bullet vibrators, fingering, handjobs, and blowjobs. Explicit pictures are included to leave a lasting impression on the impressionable.

Interest in “Gender Queer” exploded after the ALA awarded the book for its special appeal to young adults, including 12-year-olds.

Should the aforementioned elementary school librarian be able to share “Gender Queer” with a seven-year-old? Should she give out Pornhub passwords or Playboy copies in the name of free speech? Or are parents right to object?

“Gender Queer” isn’t the only example. LGBT activist George M. Johnson’s “All Boys Aren’t Blue” is another, discussing lube, masturbation, and oral sex at length. Quote: “I put some lube on, and I got him on his knees.” Another is “Let’s Talk About It,” which shows readers how to insert butt plugs and access fetish porn websites. (Viewer discretion is advised.) Then there is Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye,” depicting incest, child sexual abuse, and the rape of an 11-year-old by her father. For decades, it has been recommended reading for pre-teen middle schoolers.

This is nothing against Toni Morrison. It has absolutely nothing to do with race or female authorship. Authors like Morrison are undoubtedly talented writers, and their words are worthy of public consumption. However, suitability depends on age: The rules are different for teenagers and young adults from those for kids who haven’t even hit puberty yet.

This has everything to do with sex. Sex clearly sells, but there is a time and place. Is that so unreasonable?

Most parents agree. Seven in 10 Americans are concerned that school-age children are being exposed to sexual material that is not age-appropriate. More than eight in 10 oppose sexually explicit books being promoted in elementary schools.

Where is the parental perspective in the New York Times? Last I checked, inclusivity includes both sides of the argument.

ALA-aligned librarians may claim they “don’t have a political agenda,” but the ALA publicly “reframed” sexually explicit content as diversity and inclusion-related material. Inappropriate content is easier for librarians to sell under the DEI umbrella.

As taxpayers, we have no — zero — responsibility to fund the sexual indoctrination of our kids, however it’s branded. Simply for saying that, parents will continue to be vilified by librarian-activists and their allies in the mainstream media. (I have personally been vilified for decades.) The ALA actively encourages librarians to expose book challenge attempts so it can mobilize its resources against parental objectors. It is no coincidence that the ALA has been funded by George Soros and other far-left financiers.

Even so, what our kids read, or don’t read, should not be a political issue. Most Democrats don’t want school-age children being exposed to sexual material that is not age-appropriate, and most support public schools fully informing parents about what is being taught to their kids. In the past, Democrat and Republican lawmakers have agreed on the importance of protecting kids from inappropriate material at an early age. To quote Texas Democrat Shawn Thierry, I am “not here for the partisan politics on this. I’m here for children.”

Let’s be here for the parents too. Parental choice matters. No matter how much we are gaslit, Americans are not book burners. We believe kids have the freedom to read age-appropriate books.

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Dan Kleinman is the owner of SafeLibraries educational services. He is also executive director of the World Library Association, an alternative to the American Library Association.